A wilderness of shamanic totems — Join us in retreat April 19 – 21

You are invited to join Sacred Nature Retreats and the Institute for the Shamanic Arts for a shamanic nature retreat along the San Pedro River, April 19 – 21, 2013. What should I expect, you ask? Your sacred nature guide for the retreat, Alyson Greene, explains . . .

We will share a beautiful, engaging weekend retreat with a relaxed schedule. The intention is for participants to experience deep connection with nature and with self, and through this to experience rest, renewal and replenishment. We will also send strong intentions and wishes for the well-being and health of the San Pedro River and all of the river’s plants and animals (both year-round inhabitants and seasonal visitors), which will include all of us.

A place of beauty and magic, the San Pedro River is home to many shamanic beings. We will journey where Jaguar walks and Hummingbird flies. Jaguar tracks have been spotted in riverside sand just a short distance downriver from our retreat lands! Along with hundreds of migrating birds, and resident beavers, the nature center is also home to Sandy Anderson’s “reptile house” with her personal rattlesnake and other snakes.

Sandy is a naturalist with many years of experience handling wild snakes, and under her guidance, we may have the rare and precious opportunity to see Rattlesnake up close . . . and, if we wish, to hold a baby rattlesnake, stretched out in a little plastic tube (wow!), which is the way herpetologists study them. Then we will journey. . . 

And there is more. The nature center’s ranch land (our cooking and campfire area) also has resident Deer, who gently glide by, as well as a friendly Roadrunner and two resident Ravens who call and caw overhead.

With these shamanic wildlife companions and the gorgeous cottonwood-willow riparian forest as your retreat habitat, you will be guided in ceremony and creative nature meditations, as well as experiencing plenty of time to follow your own pace of river resting, napping, hiking, relaxing, and exploring. For more information, see our retreat webpage by clicking here. Space is limited! We hope you will register today and join us for this very magical retreat weekend. Blessings to you.

Our beautiful, earthy Sacred Nature Journey Walk among rocks & desert stones

Yesterday, we enjoyed a beautiful, earthy Sacred Nature journey walk among rocks and desert stones in the west desert surrounded by the Tucson Mountains. Sacred nature guide Alyson Greene led the way.  It was the beginning of our Spring 2013 series of Sacred Nature journey walks! (Read more about the series, and sign up for our March 9 or April 7 journey walks here.)

We meditated on the geologic poetry of time as we silently traversed the desert path through saguaro, ocotillo, teddybear cholla, and thousands of multi-colored desert stones. Then, we gathered and shared about our love of Earth and rocks.

Led in a guided visualization, we traveled back through time, hearing stories of our Sonoran desert’s wild volcanic past . . . and of mountains shifting and sailing across the land on tectonic plates, like broken pieces of dark chocolate on a thick, fiery magma bed of taffy being stretched and pulled by the forces of Nature and time.

We rested on the Earth, held in the solid comfort of the thick mountain rock of our desert land, experiencing both the stability of now and the wonder of past (and future) fiery transformation and change. We rested in this peaceful moment of now.

We each found a quiet place in the desert to sit with rocks and plants, and to be in their presence, listening and observing. We were sitting with the essence (true nature) of the rock and plant beings around us, and we recorded our impressions in words and drawings. Then we experience a shamanic drum journey to the minerals and rocks of Earth. As we rested and reflected on the minerals of the earth making their way into the plants we love, and circulating throughout our own bodies, as well as the minerals of our bones holding our bodies steady like the mountains and ground, the drumming began . . . and the journeys!

We ended our circle by each sending up a blessing wish for the wellbeing of wild Earth — and the transformation of human consciousness and heart to make it so! May many beings benefit from our sacred afternoon in the desert–from our intentions and prayers and from the sense of nourishing wellbeing we bring to others from our own inward time of retreat. May you feel the blessings reaching you now. We made our wishes for you!

Sacred Nature Retreats invites you to join us for the path ahead. Register for one of our upcoming Sacred Nature spring journey walks. . . Desert Wildflowers on March 9 and Desert Water and Sky on April 7. Also, you are invited to our upcoming Sacred Nature *Earth Day* Retreat (April 19 – 21)!

See details here: Sacred Nature Journey Walks
and Spring Retreat – along the San Pedro River (April 19 – 21).

Come walk in beauty with us.

Welcome!

Sacred Nature Retreats is happy to announce our Spring 2013 series of nature journey walks and our upcoming Sacred Nature *Earth Day* Retreat (April 19 – 21)!

See details here: Sacred Nature Journey Walks.